In a search for new unique sounds, I have recently begun bowing some of my percussion instruments, gongs, and vibraphone.

I had bowed some marimbas and vibes in college in the 90's... but wasn't much interested in that sound at the time as I was playing rock, jazz, and latin musics.

Now that I am primarily focused on creating ambient music, I am blown away with the possibilities with bowing gongs, cymbals, found sounds, and the vibraphone.

It's a lot of fun finding the "hidden" sounds in these instruments... and bowing percussion instruments really has a "synthesizer" like sound to it. Im looking forward to processing and recording these bowed sounds more in the future and mixing them in with synths and other sounds. _________________ ElectroCasa

I like both the videos you posted a lot. Great work with your track...a nice minimal rhythmic piece. It sounds nice as is..but you could also layer some more sounds around what you have. I can hear the influence in the first video on your piece (since you posted both in a comparision like format here) ... but don't be afraid to let the music take you in other directions. It sounds like to me you are on the right track

FL studio seems like an excellent daw.... ive often thought about getting it for myself as well. I have a friend, Altus, that creates all his ambient music through FL with superb results.
Keep going !_________________ ElectroCasa

Yeah, I could do that. As simple sounding and minimalistic the music is, it actually is pretty complex haha. I don't know if it's just my skill level with sound engineering, experience with FL Studio, or just my mind, but it's tough for me to get more and more sounds, and an even bigger problem for me is getting off beat for a more natural, analog feel. I also need to work on transitions, intro'ing, and ending. Need more flow! ha
Thanks for the feedback .

I see a number of topics in this thread about the idea of composing ambient music -- like around the concept of actually making a song. So I have a side-question.

How many people currently composing ambient music digitally previously playing and wrote music on an analog instrustment -- say a guitar or something?

Just curious how that translates in the overall idea of composition? Not the technical 'know how' of instrumentation of using a computer, but the idea of actually writing a song (the content) using digital means.

Just curious how that translates in the overall idea of composition? Not the technical 'know how' of instrumentation of using a computer, but the idea of actually writing a song (the content) using digital means.

My guess is that almost everyone who now composes electronic music started off on one acoustic instrument or another. I'm sure there are a few notable exceptions. At our electro-music events one sees lots of keyboards, guitars, banjos, trombones, drums, trumpets, flutes, etc.

Maybe we should organize an acoustic jam at a future gathering.

Music is music. Electronic instruments open lots of additional opportunities sonically and compositionally. I personally would write a lot of music for conventional symphony orchestras, but I wouldn't have much chance of getting anything performed. I like the freedom of having my own orchestra of electronic instruments that I can play myself._________________--Howard
my music and other stuff

My guess is that almost everyone who now composes electronic music started off on one acoustic instrument or another. I'm sure there are a few notable exceptions.

Me!

I first started putting sounds together on cassette and my dad's reel-to-reel without really knowing what i did - I called them "sound stories" and they bored the hell out of my friends!

I only really started playing a "real" instrument at about 16 when I got a Korg Poly-61. I did take some piano lessons at some point but never did very well. I have always been more of an "engineer" than "musician" and still approach music as a collection of sounds rather than notes..._________________Muied Lumens Base Star

I did take some piano lessons at some point but never did very well. I have always been more of an "engineer" than "musician" and still approach music as a collection of sounds rather than notes...

Well, you are doing pretty good, IMHO. I started electronic music with a three head tape recorder and a couple of short wave radios. Before that I did learn to play the ukulele, banjo, and piano. The cool thing is that we all come at this from different places._________________--Howard
my music and other stuff

I did take some piano lessons at some point but never did very well. I have always been more of an "engineer" than "musician" and still approach music as a collection of sounds rather than notes...

Hmmm... that sounds familiar

Ambient music has become a bit of a broad church these days, but maybe it always was. Conventional wisdom says that Ambient first appeared in the late '60s - early '70s, with the advent of synthesizers and cheaper solid-state electronics. That maybe when the term was first coined, but (IMO) there's a lot of music which pre-dates that, which could be said to have an "ambient" quality - such as Ray Scott's Soothing Sounds for Baby. Even some classical music, e.g. Debussy's La cathédrale engloutie could be said to have an ambient nature.

I wouldn't say you need any particularly advanced knowledge of synths, in order to create ambient tones. I often turn to my Korg Z1, to create slowly shifting, evolving sounds; the "resonant" oscillator option is a good "ethereal" source and it has EGs and LFOs aplenty (although the menu-diving gets a bit much sometimes).

Mangling samples through stacks of VST FX and resampling them is another favourite game of mine. Last night I started playing with a sampled sequence of tones blurted out by my little noise synth - half an hour later and it was starting to sound like a couple distant, softly echoing bells, chiming in the mist.

Then I went to bed and made some more ambient music, by turning Classic FM down to a barely audible level. Some say this is the best way to listen to it anyway _________________It may stop, but it never ends.

Conventional wisdom says that Ambient first appeared in the late '60s - early '70s, with the advent of synthesizers and cheaper solid-state electronics. That maybe when the term was first coined, but (IMO) there's a lot of music which pre-dates that, which could be said to have an "ambient" quality - such as Ray Scott's Soothing Sounds for Baby. Even some classical music, e.g. Debussy's La cathédrale engloutie could be said to have an ambient nature.

My first exposure to ambient music was Erik Satie. I think he called it wallpaper music, and John Cage called it furniture music. Bach and Mozart also experimented with non-developmental music. Rightly or IMHO wrongly, the term ambient music is now associated with Brian Eno._________________--Howard
my music and other stuff

Rightly or IMHO wrongly, the term ambient music is now associated with Brian Eno.

He is known to have coined the term "Ambient Music" as far as I know, as a way of describing music that is supposed to blend with the random sounds of the listening environment. He is not the first person to think outside of the frame though._________________Muied Lumens Base Star

My first exposure to ambient music was Erik Satie. I think he called it wallpaper music, and John Cage called it furniture music... Rightly or IMHO wrongly, the term ambient music is now associated with Brian Eno.

It was Eno who (at least verbally) defined (labelled?) the genre, for sure; but the concept was definitely out there long before. It's not the only time it's happened - the music which eventually became known as Punk, was around for years before, for example._________________It may stop, but it never ends.

OK, after a little research, Brian Eno probably was the first to use the word to describe this kind of music. That, is pretty special and he should be given due credit. Ambient has more pizzazz than wallpaper.

"... a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Maybe not. Whatever happened to vomit music? _________________--Howard
my music and other stuff

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